Walthamstow's Plague Pits

Walthamstow's Plague Pits

The site of a 17th century plague pit.

The graveyard to the North of Vinegar Alley, away from St Mary's Church and beyond the Almshouses was where the survivors of the Great Plague of London dumped the bodies of the dead.

Vinegar Alley is so named because they lined the surrounding paths with the only plentiful thing they had that warded off the disease.

At the start of the plague outbreak, parishes did the best they could to provide proper burials for their parishoners, but soon ran out of space and began to dig mass graves within the city. However, the plague was so devastating that soon, in late 1665, the group graves began to be dug outside the city.

1»I live in walthamstow and Know Vinegar alley well. From what I know of the area and the alley itself, that it pre-dates the 17th century and my
understanding that the 16th century school(now alms houses) were located near the pits this in itself suggusts that the plague pits are from the 14th century not the 17th.(Graham Long)